Off-topic: way cool to see the name Antero Alli mentioned on HN! Which of his books have you read? I am currently reading Angel Tech and The Eight-Circuit Brain.
You know, in a way he is not that wrong. Bad things often are necessary for good things to happen. Crime may not the best example, though. But a good example would be striving for excellence. People who come from the rock bottom are often insanely driven to reach the ultimate heights. People who are happy and mellow by default most often don't feel the need to do so. Kind of like how a grain of sand irritates an oyster into making a pearl.
Many tech guys on HN often ask: what use are business co-founders?
Superior domain knowledge would be one thing. If I'm going to team up with a business guy, I want him to be a top notch expert in his field.
There's a tendency for tech guys to discount domain knowledge, believing that it's just a matter of "hacking something out in a weekend, after all it's just a matter of shovelling data" (I used to fall into this trap myself - now I know the value of domain expertise).
And I've seen this in areas other than programming too. It's _really_ common for motorcyclists with a year or two of riding experience to be offering all sort of advice to newer riders - advice which riders with 10 or more years of experience will sometimes just roll their eyes at, and sometimes will step in and say "that's not just wrong, but dangerous enough to get you killed if you're not careful".
tldr.io seems nice, anyone tried it?